When you get to live your dreams, you know you've worked in the right direction. For city-based Nandita Gaur the big moment was when she got an invite to be a part of the six-week NASA Airborne Science field experience. "Designed to immerse students in NASA's Earth Science research through the use of ground measurements, aircraft and satellite-data collection, this was something I always wanted to do," smiles this pass-out of Sacred Heart School, who later went on to complete civil engineering from Punjab Engineering College.

With a deep interest in earth sciences and environment, "here I flew the MASTER sensor on NASA's DC-8 research aircraft to do studies on evapotranspiration and crop health studies," Nandita's research focuses on soil moisture scaling. It's an absorbing meet, with Nandita attending lectures at the University of California by university faculty members and top NASA scientists.